The Nature Club holds regularly scheduled events like the Environmental Commission Conference throughout each year. Every year on the first Saturday in March, we hold the East Coast Vulture Festival in conjunction with the Wenonah Environmental Commission. On the first Saturday in May, we hold Gloucester County Bird Quest. Also in May, we hold our annual plant sale at the regular May club meeting. In the summer we offer a series of special fieldtrips and every winter we hold the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. For more information on each of these events you can look to our most recent newsletter or check here again in the next few weeks for updates to this page.
Upcoming GCNC Events
Field Trip – Wheelabrator Waste to Energy Facility, Westville, February 18, 2012 Starts 10:00 AMLeaders: Jayne Rhynard, Joe Achey
The Conservation Committee is pleased to sponsor this month's indoor "field" trip. We invite you to join us for a specially guided tour of the Wheelabrator plant to see firsthand how our municipal waste is converted into electricity powering 15,000 Gloucester County homes. We will meet at 10:00 AM in the reception area at the front of the building and you may park in the lot closer to the plant inside the gates. We will learn about non-ferrous metals processing, electric power production and air quality control. In addition, we can hear about the Eastern Bobwhite project and weather permitting, walk the 150 acre Wildlife at Work site, the first of its kind in the United States.
The GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT happens this month! This year's Great Backyard Bird Count takes place on February 17 - 20. Please click the button below for details on how you can participate in this free event and help researchers.
Also, in a separate event, you can Help Project FeederWatch Track Backyard Birds. Bird watchers are needed to help scientists discover changes in bird populations. Project FeederWatch is for people of all ages and skill levels. It begins in November 2011 and runs through April 6, 2012. Taking part is easy. Anyone can count the numbers and kinds of birds at their feeders and enter their information on the FeederWatch website. To learn more and to sign up, visit www.feederwatch.org or call the Cornell Lab toll-free at (866) 982-2473. In return for the $15 fee ($12 for Cornell Lab members) participants receive the FeederWatcher’s Handbook, an identification poster of the most common feeder birds, a calendar, complete instructions, and Winter Bird Highlights, an annual summary of FeederWatch findings.
Upcoming Events by other organizations
February 4 (Saturday) – 9:00-11:00 AM. Animal Signs Family Hike. Sponsored by the Palmyra Cove Nature Park. $Fee. Reservations required. For information phone 856-825-1900 x 270.
February 11 (Saturday) – 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Cumberland County Eagle Festival. Family programs, exhibits, speakers, and guided walks. Mauricetown Fire Hall, Mauricetown NJ. $Fee. For information: www.co.cumberland.nj.us
February 11 (Saturday) – 6:30 PM (after the Eagle Festival). Chili Bowl and Auction fundraiser. Mauricetown Fire Hall, Mauricetown NJ. Sponsored by the Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River. $Fee. For information: www.coumauriceriver.org
February 17-20 (Friday - Monday). Great Backyard Bird Count. Count birds in your backyard or other locations, submit highest daily species totals. Organized by the Cornell Lab. Of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. For information: birdcount.org
February 19 (Sunday), 2:00 PM, Walk in the Wild. Sponsored by the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust. Free. Experience a casual stroll on the trails of the land trust with a knowledgeable leader to observe the plants, animals, natural features and processes, and just plain magic that make this place very special. Meet in the parking area at the end of Rankin Avenue in Blackwood Terrace. For more information call Carl Ford at 856-579-4441. We will do this on the third Sunday of each month, with a different focus each month.
February 26 (Sunday) – 10:30 AM-Mid-afternoon. Salem County Winter Birding. Leader: Sandra Keller. $Fee. Sponsored by the Rancocas Nature Center. For information phone 609-261-2495.
The following events take place at the Scotland Run Nature Center in Clayton. For details and to register, call the center at (856) 881-0845. All events are free.
Past Nature Club Events
BIRD QUEST 2011 was held on Saturday May 7, 2011. See the Bird Quest Page for a wrap-up.
THE MAD HATTER'S TREE PARTY was held on Saturday October 23, 2010, and was a great success. 169 people participated (including many families and children), and another 106 people had to be added to a waiting list and unfortunately turned away. See the Mad Hatter's photo page to see some photos of the event.
The East Coast Vulture Festival 2009 was held on Saturday, March 7, 2009.
On Saturday, March 7, 2009 the 4th annual East Coast Vulture Festival took flight in celebration of the communal roost of Turkey and Black Vultures that make historic Wenonah their winter home. The weather was mild as a spring day and as the vultures perched on rooftops or sailed the sky, the Vulture Day Children’s Fair opened its doors at Wenonah’s Community Center. This was the second year for our free afternoon fair, again coordinated splendidly by Kris Mollenhauer, and attendance exceeded last year’s success. Young and old alike were greeted outdoors by our festival mascot, Buzzy (performed by Anne Kram).The fairgoers enjoyed games, crafts, temporary tattoos, displays (including the new wingspan display) and the special presentation, “Animal Encounters”, by the Academy of Natural Sciences with exotic live animals including an African Grey Parrot, a Boa Constrictor, a tropical skink and a giant hissing cockroach. Judy Scott of Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge also entertained and informed festival goers with a live Screech Owl. The festival store at the fair did a thriving business. The overflowing and enthusiastic crowd spilled out onto the to the sidewalk and the RR tracks, many heading for a close up view of the vultures with Brian Hayes, who set up an observation station at Wenonah School where the vultures frequent the water tower. For many visitors seeing these birds at close range through binoculars or scope and learning their natural history was the perfect ending to their visit to the Children’s Fair.
The Evening Roost at Wenonah School completed the festival events with a program filled with entertainment and education. Nearly 200 paid attendees filled the large All Purpose Room, socializing and being greeted by Buzzy and the master of venues in traditional vulture mask and costume. Our guests enjoyed our fruit salad, cheese and desserts of distinction, viewed the information tables for Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge and the Gloucester County Nature Club and shopped at the festival store. The formal program began with a presentation by Cedar Run with a live Barred Owl and Screech Owl. Next the festival awarded three $500 VEE Grants to teachers from Glassboro, Mantua and Deptford schools (including our own Gale Cannon) to assist with environmental education projects (in each case butterfly gardens this year). The centerpiece of the evening was another program from the Academy of Natural Sciences, Raptors: Predators of The Sky, with live birds of prey and a live Turkey Vulture. The Academy’s Outreach Director, Michelle Bassler, was the presenter for this outstanding program. Education was followed by art as Jim Six continued his tradition of performing and bringing his music to every festival since our founding in 2006. The festival concluded with the birth of a new artist, rapper Vulture Vamp (also sometimes known as Sharon Oakes) who wrote and performed the rap, “Vulture’s Delite”, backed by her posse, the Road Kill Review Dancers.
The East Coast Vulture Festival is held annually on the 1st Saturday in March. Its purpose is to educate the public about the beneficial role of vultures and the importance of a healthy and sustainable environment, and to raise money for environmental education in local schools. The event is sponsored by The Gloucester County Nature Club and The Wenonah Environmental Commission. For more information on the festival, go to our web site at http://www.EastCoastVulturefestival.org.